What do wizards do?

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 55028

Lindy Brett wrote:
> Snape waves a wand to clear up a mess, in one place, then in another 
> he has Harry swab the place down by hand. One can see why he did that 
> (Harry is so irritating), but the point is that cleaning up can be 
> accomplished by a wand-wave. Cleaning is a cruel and unusual 
> punishment for magic folk. They have sort of unexpected extras like 
> chasing gnomes out of the gardens, but they don't have to do the 
> stuff muggles have to do.

You've touched the reason yourself, partly: manually cleaning is a 
punishment. But hardly cruel and definetely not unusual - we've seen it 
several times (Ron was made clean trophies after the arrival in CoS). 
As a punishment, in fact, is very light for Hogwart standards 
(compared, for example, to roaming the forbidden forest at night), and 
very effective: I'm sure Harry won't spill anything any time soon 
(except when he wants to stay and listen to Snape talking, that is).

> Dumbledore can 'draw up' a chair. No need for chair makers then. Can 
> he 'draw up' a carpet? A painting?

"Draw up" doesn't mean "create". It means bringing it from some other 
place. That can indeed be accomplished by magic, but it hardly puts 
anyone out of their jobs.

In the same level, someone has already pointed out that creating things 
out of pure magic is, by the rules set up by JKR, limited in time (not 
permanent). I think of it as a form of illusion magic: no matter how 
solid it looks and feels, it is still formed of nothing but magic, and 
when the energy runs out, so does the object. More powerful individuals 
migh hold the illusion longer, but it *will* keep disapearing, maybe at 
inconvenient times. It is easier to buy the object.

And of course, some objects cannot be created, no matter what. A chair 
might be easy (assuming it doesn't fall apart when you first try to 
sit), but could you create a radio? a flying broomstick? a 
self-stirring cauldron? We muggles have technology, and with technology 
you can build a Boing 747. Can *you* create it? No, because you don't 
know how. A chair is easier, yes, but requires logic (i.e. this peg 
goes here so it holds this leg attached to this other part, etc.), and 
so far most wizards have very little in the ways of logic.

> The food. Do the house-elves cook it? Or magic it up? The wizzes and 
> witches put no effort in. Farming - why would a wizard plod around 
> after cows or sheep? Doesn't he just sit on his rocking chair and 
> wave his wand at the poor dawg?

As someone has pointed out already, they don't need to do that anymore 
we have to: where they wave wands and get things done, we wave other 
wands (steering wheels) and have the machines work instead. Food is 
cooked with ovens and microwaves, except those that like a more 
hands-on approach, out of personal preference. And so on.

> Travelling. Its a good job they can't all apparate. All of the 
> realities of our world collapse when you get instant travel. 

That is not true, at all. Instant travel, in our world (or the closest 
thing to it, light speed travel) would still require energy, and thus 
would still need technology and consumption of resources to produce. 
Besides, forests that would continue to be devoured to make newspapers, 
and so many other examples of realities of our world, would hardly 
"collapse" by instant travel.

> You 
> don't have to live near your work - just apparate (and no penalties 
> to using magic in JKR's world, no magical bounceback as in The Worst 
> Witch or Discworld). Taking the kiddies to school? Why send them by 
> antiquated train? Except that it's romantic?

No penalties? Hardly. There is the big danger of splinching, so 
terrible that many wizards never learn to apparate. You cannot apparate 
big distances. Assuming no hidden plots, Dumbledore, the most powerful 
wizard in England, prefers to take the broom to London in PS rather 
than attempting apparition. They still use brooms, flu powder and 
portkeys. And there is pretty good evidence that you cannot safely 
apparate while carrying other living people.

In the theme of the train, it's not particularly traditional, but as a 
child, I always enjoyed trips like that one. Giving the chidren a day 
to reach trhe school fomentates friendship between the students and 
also allows them time to get used to the idea of school. Apart from the 
fact that it is the easiest way of transporting several hundred 
children from one place to another.

> I find the use of magic in Hogwarts an endless puzzle. It can do some 
> things, and not others. Such detail, but what about sewers? 

Sewers do exist and are regularly used (apart from extraordinarily by 
giant snakes and Harry in CoS). They empty in the lake, and some have 
suggested after some form of residual treatment (or else, angry 
lake-dwellers).

> So: can magic do everything? 

I have a theory of my own in this aspect. We know that there are 
limitations to what a given individual can accomplish by magic - 
Dumbledore is known to be more *powerful* which in turns means that 
doing magic requires energy in some sort, energy which Dumbledore must 
have in more quantity, or at least can use more efficiently. Which in 
turn means that you cannot spend the entire day doing magic, since 
power must run out sooner or later, IMO.

Furthermore, as I have pointed out, magic has a definite boundary to 
what it can do: you cannot do something by magic that you cannot work 
out in your mind. Anymore that if you are given all the pieces (and I 
mean the pices, down to and including individual logic gates) you 
wouldn't be able to put together a computer, a wizard cannot do 
something he does not understand, or for which he knows no spell. As in 
the real world, in the WW there is specialization: some people know 
best some spells, other know others. And no-one can know all of them. 
So if you happen to know how to build broomsticks and how to enchant 
them, you cannot create ice-cream... or at least not as good as the one 
a professional ice-cream maker does.

> The jobs that are described are teaching, civil 
> service, shopkeeping, and sport. No artists are mentioned (ideal 
> occupation once the cleaning is taken care of), though there are 
> musicians.

Artist have indeed been mentioned. We know of musicians and 
photographers. Pictures evdence the existance of painters. Many book 
authors have been mentioned, including Lockhart. Harry is not the one 
to read poetry, but he has been subjected to it, indicating that 
rhyming is indeed known in the WW. BUT, unlike you point out, there is 
more to this life than cleaning, and most people still need jobs to 
live confortably. And the same thing happens in the muggle world: I can 
clean my entire flat in an hour, but that won't put food in my plate, 
so if I want to eat, I better have money to purchase it.

> Sorry - a slightly grumpy ramble. What I am saying is, when magic 
> does so much, why bother to go to work, why get up in the morning?
> 
> Lindy

That argument cuts both ways: as Clark (Arthur C.) said once: 
sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguisable from magic. Most 
of the magical tricks of HP can be replicated in our world. All can be 
duplicated in Science Fiction. But people, regardless of the amount of 
technology, still have to work to make a living.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf